Ireland’s property market is 22 years away from recovery say experts

Distressed properties continue to sell well as $22.9 million spent in DublinGoogle Images

Although profits were made at the Allsops Space property auction in Dublin this week, experts at Ireland’s Central Bank believe Ireland’s property market will take 22 years to recover from what has been the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

For one seller at the Allsops Space auction held at the Shelbourne Hotel, the Irish property market was magic on Wednesday when they sold the property located at 23 Nothumberland Road, Ballsbridge, for $884,000 (€685,000). This July this seller had bought the property at auction for $710,000 (€550,000) which means they made a profit of $174,000 (€135,000) in just three months.

The Irish Times reported that 2,700 people attended the auction with 60 people from Ireland and abroad taking part online and via telephone bidding. In total, $22.9 million (€17.8) was spent on property at the auction, many of which were distressed properties, an occurrence which is becoming all too regular in Ireland’s current economic climate.

Robert Hoban from Allsops Space said 50 overseas investors joined in on the bidding.

He said, “A lot of overseas bidders are expats who have not been affected by the recession and who have children starting college. Many of these are buying properties close to Irish colleges so their children can attend college in Ireland.

“There are also people looking to purchase holiday homes in Ireland.”

However, while profits and bargains were being snapped up on Stephen’s Green, the Central Bank released depressing reading in the form of their latest research into Ireland’s Celtic Tiger property crash.

The report compares the financial crises in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Japan, and Ireland over the past 25 years. The forecast estimates that from this list of countries, Ireland will have the slowest recovery due to “Dublin’s reliance on external trade and its inability to devalue its currency,” reports the Financial Times.

Here’s the Irish Times video from the auction –

Distressed properties continue to sell well as $22.9 million spent in DublinGoogle Images